DT 


FRANCE 


IN 


NORTH  AFRICA 

1906 


BY 


THOMAS  WILLING,  BALCH 

Member  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar 
The  American  Philosophical  Society,  etc. 


FRANCE 


IN 


NORTH  AFRICA 

1906 


BY 


THOMAS   WILLING   BALCH 

Member  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar 
The  American  Philosophical  Society,  etc. 


ALLEN,    LANE    AND    SCOTT 

1211-1213  Clover  Street 

Philadelphia 

1906 


IDT3I7 
33 


FRANCE    IN    NORTH    AFRICA 

1906 


By  Thomas    Willing    Balch 


The  threat  of  a  clash  by  Germany  with  France 
and  England  over  the  settlement  of  the  inter- 
national status  of  Morocco,  has  revived  and  brought 
into  view  once  more  the  rivalry  of  the  Gaul  and 
the  Teuton  over  the  possession  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine. While  the  old  animosity  of  centuries  be- 
tween France  and  England  has  passed  away,  the 
rivalry  between  France  and  Germany  still  subsists 
with  all  the  intensity  of  the  past.  With  some  minor 
exceptions,  the  former  outstanding  differences  be- 
tween France  and  England  have  been  adjusted 
to  their  mutual  satisfaction  through  the  skillful 
efforts  of  King  Edward  the  Seventh,  Monsieur 
Delcasse\  and  other  men.  Between  the  two  coun- 
tries there  is  no  open  and  smarting  wound  to  keep 
up  the  old  memories  of  the  times  of  King  Henry 
the  Fifth  of  England,  and  Joan  of  Arc,  "la  bonne 
Lorraine."     But  Alsace   and   Lorraine  rise  up  be- 


M17474 


4  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA. 

tween  France  and  Germany  as  a  barrier  to  a  sin- 
cere and  lasting  adjustment  of  their  relations. 
Emilio  Castelar,  the  great  Spanish  orator,  once 
said  that  "The  retention  by  Germany  of  Alsace 
and  Lorraine  is  the  one  obstacle  to  the  permanent 
peace  of  Europe."  This  seems  an  extravagant 
statement,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  question  of 
the  ownership  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  influences 
every  move  on  the  chess  board  of  European  pol- 
itics, and  many  of  them — such  as  the  formation 
of  the  Triple  Alliance  between  Germany,  Austria- 
Hungary  and  Italy,  and  the  existence  of  the 
entente  cordiale  between  France  and  England — 
are  in  a  large  measure  outcomes  of  it. 

There  are  various  forces  at  work  continually 
that  disturb  and  change  the  balance  of  power  in 
Europe  and  the  world.  The  utter  paralysis  of  the 
Russian  Empire,  since  the  Russo-Japanese  war, 
has  enabled  the  Emperor  of  Germany  to  take  a 
much  more  commanding  tone  towards  France  and 
England.  The  disproportion  in  the  population  be- 
tween Germany  and  France  which  has  become 
greater  every  year  in  favor  of  the  former  power 
since  the  war  of  1870-71,  has  also  given  to  Ger- 
many a  more  important  position  in  the  affairs  of 
Europe. 

The  reason  why  Germany  so  quickly  and  com- 
pletely defeated  France  in  1870,  was,  that  Prus- 
sia, under  the  skillful  leadership  of  Bismarck  and 


FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA.  5 

Von  Moltke,  was  thoroughly  prepared  for  that 
war,  while  France  was  utterly  disorganized.  The 
French,  owing  to  their  total  lack  of  organization, 
in  vain  tried  to  advance  their  forces  to  invade  Ger- 
many; and  it  was  not  until  after  the  proclamation 
of  the  Republic  that  the  French  under  the  inspiring 
leadership  of  Gambetta  were  able  to  show  that 
they  still  could  fight.  In  1870  the  Germans  were 
only  slightly  superior  in  numbers,  but  to-day  the 
difference  in  their  favor  has  largely  increased,  and 
is  likely  to  increase  still  more,  and  we  may  re- 
member the  dictum  of  the  great  Napoleon:  "Dieu 
est  avec  les  gros  battalions." 

A  great  number  of  French  left  Alsace  soon  after 
the  war,  while  many  Germans  settled  there,  and 
this  movement  still  goes  on.  For  example,  Bel- 
fort,  which  before  the  Franco-German  war  was  a 
town  of  about  seven  thousand  people,  now  num- 
bers over  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  many  of  the 
newcomers  having  lived  before  the  war  in  Mul- 
house.  As  they  left,  their  place  was  filled  by  Ger- 
mans. Thus  a  large  part  of  the  population  of  Alsace 
is  composed  to-day  of  Germans,  and  not  of  Alsacians. 
But  it  is  not  only  in  Alsace  that  Germany  has  all  the 
best  of  this  movement  of  races.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  Franco-German  war,  France  had  thirty-eight  mill- 
ions of  inhabitants  and  Germany  forty-two.  Since 
then  the  French  have  increased  to  only  about  forty 
millions,  while  the  Germans  have  gained  in  numbers 


6  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA. 

until  they  now  number  sixty  millions  of  people.  If 
this  more  rapid  gain  on  the  part  of  Germany  contin- 
ues for  a  few  decades  more,  it  will  settle  the 
question,  as  between  her  and  France  alone,  irrev- 
ocably in  favor  of  Germany. 

As  a  future  counterpoise  to  this  rapid  and  over- 
whelming increase  in  the  population  of  Germany  in 
contrast  with  the  meager  gains  of  that  of  France 
since  the  close  of  the  Franco-German  war,  France 
can  begin  to  look  with  hope  to  the  slow  but  steadily 
growing  number  of  French  citizens  in  her  Algerian 
colony.  And  this  opportunity  to  build  up  a  New 
France  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  was  clearly  presented  to  France  and  her  rulers 
by  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  her  writers  of  the 
last  century.  Provost- Paradol,  who  at  the  age  of 
only  thirty-four  was  elected  a  member  of  V Academic 
Francaise,  pointed  out  in  1868,  with  rare  force  and 
clearness  in  the  best  known  of  his  works,  La  France 
Nouvelle,  how  France  was  steadily  losing  ground  in 
Europe  from  the  fact  that  her  people  were  in- 
creasing in  numbers  less  rapidly  than  the  other 
races,  how  she  should  avoid  a  clash  of  arms  with 
Prussia  and  the  German  states,  how  the  English 
speaking  peoples  were  extending  their  influence  in 
many  quarters  of  the  globe,  how  the  Slavonic  races 
were  looming  up,  and  finally,  he  showed  how  France, 
in  order  to  retain  her  influence  and  power  in  the 
affairs  of  the   world,   should   use  her  utmost  en- 


FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA.  7 

deavors  to  colonize  Algeria.  The  lapse  of  almost 
four  decades  since  he  wrote  the  following  words 
show  how  clearly  and  prophetically  he  looked  into 
the  future.  Speaking  of  the  vital  importance  to 
France  to  have  the  number  of  French  speaking 
citizens  grow,  he  said: 

"We  still  have  this  supreme  chance,  and  this 
chance  is  called  by  a  name  that  should  be  more 
popular  in  France,  Algeria.  This  land  is  fertile,  it 
is  most  suitable  owing  to  the  nature  of  its  soil  to 
a  nation  of  agriculturists,  and  the  improvement  of 
the  water  supply,  which  is  in  that  country  the 
most  important  question,  is  in  no  respect  beyond 
the  reach  of  our  science  and  riches.  This  land  is 
close  enough  to  us  so  that  the  Frenchman,  who 
does  not  like  to  lose  sight  of  his  home,  does  not 
feel  there  like  an  exile,  and  can  continue  to  follow 
the  current  of  events  in  the  home  country.  Finally 
it  is  for  us,  owing  to  its  rapproachement  to  our 
shores  and  its  configuration  also,  easy  to  defend, 
and  the  two  countries  that  touch  it  place  no  serious 
limit  to  our  development  the  day  that  it  may  seem 
necessary  for  us  to  expand.  May  that  day  soon 
come,  when  our  fellow-citizens,  crowded  in  our 
French  Africa,  will  overflow  into  Morocco  and 
Tunis,  and  will  establish  finally  that  Mediterranean 
empire  that  will  be  not  only  a  satisfaction  for  our 
pride  but  also  will  certainly  be  in  the  future  de- 


8  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA. 

velopment  of  the  world,   the  last  resource  of  our 

grandeur! 

******* 

"  Africa  must  not  be  for  us  a  comptoir  like  India, 
nor  only  a  camp  and  a  field  of  exercise  for  our 
army,  still  less  a  field  of  experience  for  our  phi- 
lanthropists; it  is  a  French  land  that  must  as  soon 
as  possible  be  settled,  possessed  and  cultivated  by 
Frenchmen,  if  we  wish  that  it  can  count  some  day 
on  our  side  in  the  settlement  of  human  affairs."1 

Since  PreVost-  Paradol  marked  out  so  clearly 
and  prophetically  how  the  future  power  and  influ- 
ence of  France  in  the  centuries  to  come  depended 
on  her  building  up  a  New  France  on  the  south- 
ern shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  France  has  pro- 
gressed materially  in  developing  her  North  African 
Empire.  To-day  there  are  more  than  three  hun- 
dred thousand  French,  two- thirds  of  whom  are 
colonial  born,  in  Algeria.  In  addition,  some  sev- 
enty thousand  Italians,  Spaniards,  Maltese  and 
other  Europeans,  have  sought  the  benefits  of 
French  citizenship  in  Algeria  through  naturali- 
zation, thus  swelling  the  total  of  French  citizens 
in  that  country  to-day  to  over  four  hundred  thou- 
sand people.  Every  year,  too,  the  sixty  thousand 
Algerian  Jews  are  learning  more  and  more  to  speak 
French  and  more  and  more  to  dress  like  Europeans, 

1  La     France     Nouvelle    par    PreVost-Paradol    first    published    in 
1868:  Paris,  1884,  pages  415-418. 


FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA.  9 

thus  little  by  little  drawing  nearer  to  a  complete 
assimilation  with  the  French  population.  And 
with  every  passing  year  the  modus  vivendi  that  has 
grown  up  between  the  French  and  the  Arabs  and 
the  Berbers  is  improving.  The  French  have  built 
splendid  roads,  they  have  put  up  telegraphs  and 
telephones,  and  they  have  constructed  railroads 
and  electric  trolleys,  thereby  improving  the  means 
of  communication.  They  have  organized  the  judicial 
system  of  Algeria  so  as  to  insure  justice  to  the 
Mohammedans  as  well  as  to  the  Jews  and  them- 
selves. They  are  slowly  bringing  the  benefits  of 
modern  scientific  medicine  to  the  Mohammedan 
population,  to  the  women  as  well  as  to  the  men. 
And  they  have  blessed  the  country  with  an  in- 
creased and  more  diffuse  supply  of  water  by  sinking 
artesian  wells  and  by  the  use  of  other  appliances. 
In  Tunis  also,  where  they  have  expanded  since 
Prevost-Paradol  wrote,  almost  thirty  thousand 
French  have  settled.  In  that  country  many  chil- 
dren, both  boys  and  girls,  of  Sicilian,  Maltese, 
and  Greek  parents,  as  well  as  Tunisian  Jews,  at- 
tend the  French  schools.  And  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  Mohammedan  boys  of  the  richer  classes  also 
seek  the  benefits  of  the  French  schools.  But  in 
Tunis  the  French  have  still  to  learn  the  impor- 
tance of  assimilating  the  strangers  by  opening  much 
wider  the  portals  through  which  the  latter  may  be- 
come French  citizens. 


10  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA. 

When  the  French  blundered  into  Algeria  in 
1830,  they  had  not  the  slightest  idea  how  to  de- 
velop a  colony.  But  in  time  they  learnt  in  the 
costly  school  of  experience  how  to  colonize  until 
to-day  their  administration  in  Algeria  and  Tunis — 
thanks  to  such  able  men  as  Paul  ReVoil,  ex- 
Governor  General  of  Algeria  and  the  representative 
of  France  at  the  Morocco  Conference  at  Algeciras, 
Monsieur  Jonnart,  the  present  Governor  General 
of  Algeria,  and  Rene"  Millet,  ex-Resident  General 
of  Tunis — is  as  good  as  that  of  the  English  in 
India. 

Firmly  established  in  Algeria  and  Tunis,  the 
French  Foreign  Office  was  naturally  anxious  to 
give  such  a  turn  to  the  solution  of  the  Moroccan 
question  as  would  safeguard  and  promote  French 
interests  in  Algeria.  The  importance  and  value 
of  Morocco  is  due  to  her  geographical  position. 
Astride  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  of  the  At- 
lantic Ocean,  the  Power  established  in  Morocco 
would  control  one  side  of  the  eastern  entrance 
of  the  Mediterranean.  In  addition,  owing  to  the 
Atlas  Mountains,  some  of  whose  tops  are  as  high 
as  the  Alps,  and  on  some  of  whose  peaks  the  snow 
rests  almost  all  the  year,  Morocco  is  supplied  with 
that  all  important  element  in  the  laws  of  Natural 
economy  that  is  so  lacking  in  Algeria  and  Tunis, 
water.  The  moisture  borne  on  the  breezes  that 
sweep  across  the  Atlantic  are  precipitated  on  the 


FRANCE    IN    NORTH    AFRICA.  11 

high  peaks  of  the  Atlas,  and  poured  into  rivers 
that  give  life  to  the  lowlands  that  lie  between  the 
mountains  and  the  ocean  and  the  inland  sea. 

For  a  number  of  reasons  France  has  great  and 
important  interests  in  Morocco.  As  England  dom- 
inates the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  on  one  side  by  her 
possession  of  the  fortress  of  Gibraltar,  it  is  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  Algeria  that  the  other 
side  of  the  Strait  should  not  pass  into  the  hands 
of  another  Power  but  France.  It  is  also  of  great 
interest  to  Algeria  to  have  a  free  and  unob- 
structed outlet  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean  for  her  grow- 
ing commerce.  For  that  purpose  it  is  necessary 
that  France  should  control  a  line  of  railroad  ex- 
tending from  her  Algerian  railroad  system  west- 
ward through  Fez  to  some  Atlantic  coast  town, 
such  as  Mogador  or  Agadir.  Again,  the  popu- 
lation of  Morocco,  which  is  estimated  by  com- 
petent and  observing  travelers  to  number  from 
eight  millions  to  twelve  millions  of  people,  is  of  a 
hardy  and  warlike  spirit.  Morocco,  owing  to  the 
great  mountain  ranges  of  the  Atlas,  which  run  in 
a  triangular  direction  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
the  Atlantic,  is  by  nature  well  guarded  from  an 
attack  from  the  side  of  Algeria.  But  when  looked 
at  from  the  Algerian  side  of  the  present  frontier,  the 
position  is  completely  reversed,  for  there  is  no 
natural  barrier  to  cover  Algeria  against  an  attack 
from  Morocco.     If  another  Power  than  France  be- 


12  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA 

came  dominant  in  Morocco,  it  would  be  possible 
for  that  State  to  hurl  the  Moroccan  tribes  in  an 
attack  against  Algeria,  and  so  continually  menace 
the  western  frontier  of  the  latter  country.  The 
history  of  France  has  turned  in  large  measure  upon 
the  weakness  of  her  northeastern  frontier.  While 
on  every  other  side,  whether  towards  Switzer- 
land, or  Italy,  or  the  Mediterranean,  or  Spain,  or 
the  Atlantic,  or  the  British  Channel,  France  has 
a  naturally  strong  frontier,  towards  the  northeast, 
from  the  Jura  Mountains  to  the  North  Sea,  she 
lays  open  and  exposed  to  attack.  Many  of  her 
continental  wars  were  waged  because  of  the  weak- 
ness of  that  northeastern  frontier.  It  was  owing 
to  that  in  part  that  she  lost  Canada.  With  this 
experience  of  centuries  of  a  weak  frontier  line, 
France  does  not  wish  to  have  her  great  African 
colony,  Algeria,  "notre  Algerie,"  as  the  French  say, 
menaced  with  a  weak  western  frontier,  vis-h-vis  of 
a  great  Power  established  in  Morocco. 

In  order  to  secure  the  preponderance  of  French 
influence  in  Morocco,  Monsieur  Delcasse,  by  the 
Anglo-French  treaty  of  April  8th,  1904,  agreed  to 
recognize  England's  possession  of  Egypt  as  an  ac- 
complished fact,  England  in  return  waiving  all  her 
rights  in  Morocco  in  favor  of  France.  This  settle- 
ment was  further  strengthened  by  a  secret  accord  on 
October  6th,  1904,  between  France  and  Spain  as  to 
their  relative  rights  in  the  development  and  admin- 


FRANCE    IN    NORTH    AFRICA.  13 

istration  of  Morocco.2  In  addition,  France  waived 
all  claim  on  Tripoli  in  favor  of  Italy.  Thus  the 
way  seemed  cleared  up  for  France  to  undertake  the 
administration  of  Morocco,  much  in  the  same  way 
that  England  had  administered  Egypt  for  twenty- 
five  years. 

Just  as  France  was  thus  about  to  complete  the 
programme  pointed  out  to  her  by  Provost- Paradol, 
and  still  further  turn  her  thoughts  from  the  loss 
of  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  the  Emperor  of  Germany, 
taking  advantage  of  the  utter  defeat  and  collapse 
of  the  military  power  of  Russia  in  the  war  with 
Japan,  suddenly  at  the  end  of  March,  1905,  chal- 
lenged in  a  dramatic  way  at  Tangier  the  carefully 
prepared  plans  by  which  France  was  to  become 
the  preponderating  Power  in  Morocco,  the  western 
neighbor  of  the  great  French  colony  of  Algeria, 
and  so  revived  the  old  rivalry  between  the  two 
antagonists  who  have  struggled  for  centuries  for 
the  possession  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.3 

The  storm  center  of  international  politics  seems 
at  present  "to  be  bound  up  in  poor  Morocco."  The 
Mediterranean    Powers — that    is    England,    Spain, 

2  he  Droit  International:  Les  Principes,  Les  Theories,  Les  Faits  par 
Ernest  Nys,  Conseiller  a  la  Cour  d'Appel  de  Bruxelles;  Paris  and 
Brussels,  1905,  Volume  II.,  pages  101-102.  Judge  Nys  is  one  of  the 
Belgian  members  of  the  permanent  Court  of  Arbitration  at  The 
Hague. 

3  Some  Facts  about  Alsace  and  Lorraine  by  Thomas  Willing  Balch, 
Philadelphia,  1895.  Restore  Metz  to  France!  by  Pan-Aryan,  The 
Arena,  January  1897,  page  293. 


14  FRANCE  IN  NORTH  AFRICA. 

France  and  Italy — have  much  the  same  reasons 
for  restraining  other  nations  from  establishing  a 
political  control  in  North  Africa  that  we  have  in 
preventing  European  Governments  from  extending 
their  sovereignty  in  Central  and  South  America. 
But  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  who  is  to-day  at 
the  head  of  the  strongest  military  power  in  Eu- 
rope, thinks  that  Germany  should  have  something 
to  say  about  the  affairs  of  Morocco.  How  the 
questions  to  be  passed  upon  by  the  diplomats  as- 
sembled at  Algeciras  will  be  disposed  of  by  them, 
it  is  impossible  to  predict.  Time,  however,  is,  in 
North  Africa,  on  the  side  of  France,  for  year  by 
year  the  number  of  French  citizens  in  Algeria 
grows  larger. 


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